News & Blog

Festival Bans Native Headdresses

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date

7/28/14

The organizers of Bass Coast Music Festival have banned Native headdresses at the festival.

The ban goes beyond the actions of Lightning in a Bottle Music Festival’s organizers, who asked festivalgoers not to wear headdresses and other items that qualified as cultural appropriation, but did not outright ban them or enforce the policy in any way. (Read about the Lightning in a Bottle "No Appropriation" policy).

A Facebook announcement from the Bass Coast organizers reads: "For various reasons, Bass Coast Festival is banning feathered war bonnets, or anything resembling them, on-site. Our security team will be enforcing this policy."

The announcement goes on to explain why they are banned at Bass Coast.

“We understand why people are attracted to war bonnets,” the Facebook announcement says. “They have a magnificent aesthetic. But their spiritual, cultural and aesthetic significance cannot be separated.”

The decision responds to a trend of non-Native people wearing headdresses at music festivals.

Both Lightning in a Bottle and Bass Coast take place on tribal lands, which makes the issue particularly poignant, but we can only hope that this trend of curtailing Native cultural appropriation at music festivals extends to all music festivals, no matter where they are held.